THE ECLECTIC.

MAY, 1860.

I.

OWEN'S PALEONTOLOGY.*

ALTHOUGH amongst the youngest of the sciences, Palæontology is making more rapid strides of progress than almost any other in the present day. Scarcely a month passes-never a year-without the addition of some important facts to the immense stores already accumulated; and these facts are in a great number of cases not the mere addition of details without any special significance, but instances of phenomena calculated to throw light upon hitherto obscure relations, to confirm doubtful theories, to shake old-established prejudices, or to necessitate the revision of apparently well-ascertained principles. Amidst all this, changes of views upon even the most simple-seeming phenomena are frequent; the mind is too apt to be dazzled by hasty generalization; imperfect induction from ill-observed facts is too often preferred to patient observation and analysis; and brilliant theory despises and carries the day over sober truth. It cannot fail to result, therefore, that the true march of such a science should be obstructed; and that its revelations should be discredited by those who can see that the learned differ often diametrically in opinion, but who are ignorant of the great principles upon which they differ.

In such a state of matters as this, it is eminently profitable to meet with a work like the present, emanating from one whose profound knowledge of the subject entitles him, if not above, yet equally with any living authority, to pronounce upon the present position and prospects of Paleontology-the science of extinct organisms. Professor Owen is cautious to the extreme-almost to

Palæontology; or, a Systematic Summary of Extinct Animals, and their Geological Relations. By Richard Owen, F.R.S., Superintendent of the Natural History Departments in the British Museum, Fullerian Professor of Physiology in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, &c., &c. A. and C. Black. 1860.

VOL. III.

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a fault, it might be said—yet if, when we look for speculation and theory on some of those points connected with the science which seem most to invite them, we are to some extent disappointed in finding nothing but negations, we are by the same disappointment assured that in trusting ourselves to such a guide, we shall not be led into dangerous hypotheses; and that if with him we inquire into the existing state of palæontological science, we shall be allowed to take nothing for granted, each step in the proof of which has not been submitted to the most rigorous scrutiny; we shall know that what we find here as ascertained, we may take with tolerable certainty as data upon which to reason further.

The present treatise is almost a literal reprint of the article "Palæontology," in the Encyclopædia Britannica; and hence arises an imperfection. In the latter work, extinct vegetable life is treated of in a separate paper, and we miss greatly in this volume such an account of these organisms as would entitle it to be considered a complete exposition of Paleontology. If in addition to this we remark, that a slightly undue preponderance is given to the vertebrate tribes, all-interesting as they are, and too little account made of the invertebrata, without which the science would probably have been non-existent, we have almost exhausted our criticism, and are prepared to take a brief survey of what Paleontology has thus far taught us. And as we cannot enter upon the whole subject, we pass over for the present those relations of the science which are undoubted by all, and notice more particularly those which are, or have been until recently, matters for much dispute. And first, as to the antiquity of our earth, and the constancy of natural laws:-after enumerating many contributions to the advancement of other sciences, our author continues :

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Finally, Paleontology has yielded the most important facts to the highest range of knowledge to which the human intellect aspires. It teaches that the globe allotted to man has revolved in its orbit through a period of time so vast, that the mind, in the endeavour to realize it, is strained by an effort like that by which it strives to conceive the space dividing the solar system from the most distant nebulæ.

"Palæontology has shown that, from the inconceivably remote period of the deposition of the Cambrian rocks, the earth has been vivified by the sun's light and heat, has been fertilized by refreshing showers, and washed by tidal waves; that the ocean not only moved in orderly oscillations regulated as now, by sun and moon, but was rippled and agitated by winds and storms; that the atmosphere, besides these movements, was healthily influenced by clouds and vapours, rising, condensing, and falling in ceaseless circulation."-p. 2.

How has Paleontology revealed all this? it may be inquired; and the answer is simple-By observation of phenomena, and by the recognition of the principle that every effect requires an adequate, efficient cause. For many miles in depth the crust of the earth consists of rocks (or strata) which are evidently due, as to their present form and arrangement, to "second causes," i. e., they are not now in the condition in which they were originally created. Some show signs of fusion, others are unmistakeably formed by the disintegration and grinding down of previous rocks; by the action of air and water, entombing, as in vast catacombs, the remains of the living and dying creatures that existed in their day. "In short, all known rocks appear to have been brought into their present state by chemical or mechanical agencies. It is indeed easy to say that these appearances are deceptive, and that these rocks may, with perfect ease, have been created just as we find them. But it is not easy to retain this opinion after having carefully examined them. For the evidence, that they are of secondary origin is nearly as strong, and of the same kind too, as it is that the remains of edifices lately discovered in Central America are the work of man, and were not created in their present condition."*

All these secondary processes required time-how much, reckoned in years, it is impossible to calculate; but that the period has been inconceivably vast is indubitable, if analogical reasoning be good for anything at all. The processes by which these strata were formed were doubtless similar in nature to those which we see in operation still continually. Sedimentary strata are perpetually in course of formation, at the bottom of ponds, lakes, or oceans, and at the deltas or mouths of rivers; and, by observing the rate at which these are deposited, and calculating for the physical differences, well marked, between deposits of rapid, and those of slow accumulation, as well as by marking the countless myriads of generations of living creatures that lived, died, and were buried in their layers, we may attain to some imperfect idea of the extended periods necessary for the formation of any one of these strata. If we accept this mode of computation as legitimate, we arrive at results with which the mind in vain strives to grapple. The Niagara river has probably been 40 or 50,000 years cutting backwards its gorge from Queenstown to the present falls. The delta of the Mississippi can scarcely have been formed in less than 100,000 years. And in that part of our own island, in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, known as the Valley of the Weald, there is evidence of the former existence of a river mighty as the one

* Prof. Hitchcock's “Religion of Geology,” p. 46.

mentioned the drainage of a former continent whose place is now unknown, which flowed for ages and formed a delta 2,000 feet in thickness, charged with the remains of long since extinct species of animal and vegetable life.

"The banks of this nameless old river were covered with forests of coniferous trees of the Pine and Araucarian families, with Cycadeæ and Ferns; and were haunted by gigantic reptiles, herbivorous and carnivorous, some of which rivalled in bulk the mammoth and the elephant; its waters were inhabited by amphibia of the same great class, chiefly crocodiles and chelonians of extinct species and type; by numerous fishes, too, of the old ganoid order, and by shells whose families, and even genera, still exist in our pools and rivers, though the species be all gone. Winged reptiles, too, occasionally flitted amid its woods, or sped over its broad bosom; and insects of the same family as that to which our dragon-flies belong, spent the first two stages of their existence at the bottom of its pools and shallows, and the terminal one in darting over it on their wings of delicate gauze in quest of their prey."*

It is scarcely necessary to refer now to the bitter warfare at first waged between geologists and divines when the great age of the world was originally promulgated as a scientific dogma. As no geologist now doubts this great age, so no believer in revelation who takes the trouble to become acquainted with the subject, sees in it any stumbling-block to his faith. The antiquity of the earth has no direct connection with the history of man's introduction to his dwelling-place; and it is of this history, and of that of his redemption-not of the cosmogony of the earth-that Scripture treats. To those who think it necessary to show that the Bible reveals not only the way of salvation, but also all scientific truth, such a statement as this will have no force. But even to them it may be proved that there is nothing in the revealed history of our earth, when rightly interpreted, that is contradictory to its geological history; and further than this it would appear superfluous to go. Leaving this preliminary branch of the subject, and passing on to the more special domain of Palæontology proper, we find our author continuing the previous quotation as follows:

"With these conditions of life, Paleontology demonstrates that life has been enjoyed during the same countless thousands of years; and that, with life, from the beginning, there has been death. The earliest testimony of the living thing, whether coral, crust, or shell, in the oldest fossiliferous rock, is at the same time proof that it died. At no period does it appear that the gift of life has been monopolized

*Hugh Miller's "Sketch-Book of Popular Geology," p. 123.

by contemporary individuals through a stagnant sameness of untold time; but it has been handed down from generation to generation, and successively enjoyed by the countless thousands that constitute the species. Paleontology further teaches that not only the individual but the species perishes; that as death is balanced by generation, so extinction has been concomitant with the creative power which has continued to provide a succession of species; and furthermore, that as regards the various forms of life which this planet has supported, there has been an advance and progress in the main.' Thus we learn that the creative force has not deserted the earth during any of the epochs of geological time that have succeeded to the first manifestations of such force; and that, in respect to no one class of animals, has the operation of creative force been limited to one geological epoch; and perhaps the most important and significant result of paleontological research has been the establishment of the axiom of the continuous operation of the ordained becoming of living things."*

In this brief quotation, cautiously worded, are enunciated several very important principles, which merit some detailed comment. These are: the existence of animal and vegetable life through immensely prolonged periods upon our globe; the death, extinction, or disappearance of species, as well as individuals; the appearance of new species from time to time, subsequent to original creation, in obedience to a law somewhat obscurely specified as a "creative force," or an "ordained becoming;" and a general "advance and progress" in the "organisms in the main."

1. When first the mark of a fern or tree was observed upon coal; when marine shells were found upon mountains and buried deep under the earth far away from the sea; when fossil skeletons of various animals were discovered entombed in the rocks; the natural and correct idea was that these indicated the previous existence of such ferns, trees, mollusca, or vertebrata, &c. But as the principles of geology became ascertained, it was discovered. that the strata in which many of these were embedded must have been deposited incalculable ages ago a difficulty which was irreconcileable with the received dogma that the earth had only existed 6,000 or 8,000 years, unless some theory could be invented equal to the emergency. A great variety of crude hypotheses were the result of this attempt to make preconceived notions accord with observed scientific facts. Some cut the knot at once by supposing that all these rocks, with their included fossils, had been originally created just as they now appear-a conclusive theory, the following out of which in other sciences

Palæontology, p. 3.